By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A DAY after her grandson’s murder, 67-year-old Sylvia Outten told The Tribune she heard five shots ring out before finding out her loved one had been fatally wounded.

According to police, a man was shot around 8pm Tuesday on First Street.

A police report said the man was parked in front of his residence on First Street when he was approached by a man on a motorcycle.

“The male then produced a firearm and discharged it in his direction hitting him several times about the body,” police said. “The victim was transported to the hospital via private vehicle, he was attended to by the doctors and later succumbed to his injuries.”

Ms Outten said the victim is her grandson, 26-year-old Shermalle Ferguson.

She told The Tribune he lived on First Street but he wasn’t killed at their residence; he was on the street about to head somewhere else with his cousin.

“Both of them have a jet ski and they were going to carry the jet ski someplace around 7.30 ... quarter to eight and when they were crossing the Palm Tree Avenue heading north one of the tyres on the trailer went down. So they had (a) problem they couldn’t pull it. So he came out to see what really happened,” his grandmother said.

“And at the same time they say that one fella pull up on a bicycle, masked and shot him.

“I was in the house and I (heard) two shots and by the time I came out there was another three and then somebody run down here and tell me ‘Grammy that’s….on the ground,’” she said, while getting emotional. “So my daughter, somebody help her put him in the car and she drove him to the hospital.”

She remembers hearing five shots, but her daughter noted it appeared he was hit by four. The 26-year-old was planning to get married in a couple of months.

Since Mr Ferguson was eight days old, he had been raised by his grandmother. She explained he didn’t have a relationship with his biological parents but did try to develop a bond with them.

Her son, Mr Ferguson’s father, and her grandson were just beginning to bond when his father was shot and killed eight years ago. He was starting to bond with his mother before his death.

But to the 67-year old, the relationship she had with her grandson was good. She contemplated if he knew he was going to die.

“It’s only lately that I don’t know, like I sit down and I think about maybe he saw his death coming or something and he would get snappy at me,” she said.

Mr Ferguson was described as a caring person yet, his grandmother noted he had some friends who really weren’t “good friends”.

She suggested those friends led her grandson to spend time in prison twice for firearm possession.

According to The Tribune’s records, the recent homicide pushes the country’s murder rate to 46 for the year. Anyone with information on Tuesday’s homicide or any other crime is asked to call police at 502-9991 or 328-TIPS.